The Big Linear - November 2006

After the Serpentine's biggest resident appeared on the bank at just over 29lb this summer, it was clear that it would approach the 30lb in winter. Now, having caught this fish 5 times before I was dubious whether I should target other 30lb'ers in other waters, but when I thought hard about it, the big linear is my favorite carp and it would be just to have her as my first 30. Plus the fact there was no guarantee I would catch her anyway.

My first session was to commence on the 1st November. As I pulled into the car park, another regulars car was in the car park, I was a little gutted as I was sure he'd be in the peg I intended to target. On arrival at poolside, I noticed that the other member, Jason had in fact targeted the snags area leaving the muddy peg (peg 14) to me. I had a quick chat to Jason before wondering round and setting up. I positioned one rod on the measuring stick to my left and one further up the dam near to a snag. Both rods used the same (proven) tactics of a snail and shell boilie on a stiff hair rig with ten free offerings scattered around each rod.

The day was fairly quiet, I didn't see any sign of movement or get any indication of any carp in the area. However, we had received the first heavy frost of the winter the night previous and the water was fairly cold so I didn't expect to see much.

Throughout the day, I managed to catch a small pike of about 2lb of a small lure, which tried its best to take my fingers off as I un-hooked it. Then, later on at about 2.20pm, I received a good line bite on the left rod. Something was moving around the measuring stick. I watched closely slowly sipping on my much needed coffee looking for signs of a carp feeding on the free offerings I introduced earlier. Again,it went quiet until about 3.00pm when the left swinger on the rod rose to the top. It didn't take any line off the reel before I lifted into a heavy weight. I immediately thought I was snagged, but i've never seen a snag move so my attention quickly turned to 'Is it the Big Linear?', no other fish in the lake came close to the weight of this fish, so it must be. As all these thoughts were wandering through my mind, the fish started to kite to my right going through my other line. I managed to turn it and off it went the other way, this time taking line off my reel, at quite a rapid rate. This carried on for about 5 minutes before she rolled just in front of me. The markings were clear, it was the Big Linear. One more short run before she gave up and slid into my awaiting net. On lifting her I knew it was hit and miss whether she'd make 30lb. I called Jason around for help with the photo's and weighing her. She tipped the scales round to 29lb 14oz, only 2oz off the magical 30lb mark. I wasn't bothered in the slightest, a new personal best and a good excuse to try again next year. I know that in her great history she has hit 30lb plus before sometime during the mid 90's so she's defiantly got the potential to do it again.

Back to Articles Page